1a. Objectives (from AD-416):
To clone and express Ara h 2 and Ara h 6 in soluble form, and to subject these clones to various chemical treatments known to occur during processing, in order to identify specific modifications.

3. Progress Report:
This is the final progress report for this project. 1) Doctors, ARS scientist, and a mutual student have worked on cloning Ara h 2, a major peanut allergen, into various DNA vectors in order to obtain soluble recombinant Ara h 2 (rA2). This has been successful and we are in the process of subjecting Ara h 2 to a simulated roasting system (Maillard or browning reaction) followed by digestion and mass spectroscopy, which will allow us to identify the specific chemical modifications that occur due to the roasting process. This will also allow us to identify specific-processing induced modifications that contribute to alterations in allergenic properties of roasted peanuts. 2)Established goals have been met according to given timeline. 3) This work is being performed by a shared Ph.D. graduate student between Tulane Health Science Center and ARS.